Alphatauri

Pierre Gasly has spoken highly of his time shared with Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri, and acknowledged “time will tell” if he will be able to step into the ‘team leader’ breach he has now vacated following his move to Alpine. The pair struck up a friendship away from the track as well as driving the same car on it over the past two seasons, with Gasly having firmly been the lead driver within AlphaTauri in terms of race results during that time. The Frenchman enjoys the fact there is “no bull****” when working with Tsunoda, but given how quickly the Japanese racer made his way into Formula 1 from the junior categories there has been an adjustment period for him to try and settle into the top tier. But as he heads into his third season, with Nyck de Vries set to join him at AlphaTauri next year, Gasly thinks his friend and now former team-mate has shown solid signs of improvement in his sophomore season in the sport. “He’s a very unique character, has a great sense of humour, no … [Read more...] about Does Yuki Tsunoda have what it takes to become AlphaTauri team leader?

Expect next season’s AlphaTauri AT04 to be a very different car to the Red Bull RB19, with the junior team keen on buying fewer parts to give them greater design freedom. The various parts of the Formula 1 cars are divided into listed parts. The IP is owned solely by the team, transferable parts – the team holds the IP but can supply the part to other teams – standard supply and open source. AlphaTauri draw heavily from Red Bull’s transferable parts list, which in years gone by was called non-listed parts, taking the senior team’s suspension, gearbox and hydraulics. But while that comes with a cost benefit, it has a knock-on effect when it comes to the design of the AlphaTauri car. Instead of having a rear suspension specifically designed for the AT, the team have to design the chassis around the suspension they are given. That means less design freedom – something chief engineer Jonathan Eddolls is hoping to get back with next year’s AT04. “For example,” Eddolls told … [Read more...] about AlphaTauri’s chief engineer wants fewer Red Bull parts for next year’s AT04

Pierre Gasly says AlphaTauri’s performance has been compromised this year because they have failed to lighten their “massively overweight” car. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free “We’ve been like 12 to 13 kilos overweight the whole season and we didn’t manage to cut this down at all,” he told media including RaceFans in Abu Dhabi. Gasly estimates the additional weight, on top of F1’s minimum limit of 798kg, has cost them around “three and a half tenths per lap,” which he believes prevented them from qualifying inside the top 10 on many occasions. “The number of times we missed Q3 by a tenth or two, probably I don’t even remember, around like 10 times this season,” he said. Having finished in the points 15 times last year, Gasly has only done so on six occasions so far this season. “Carrying all that weight into the race it’s like running with a backpack,” he said. “You start 13, 14 kilos overweight, you just carry them the whole race. “You have more … [Read more...] about AlphaTauri chassis still “massively overweight” – Gasly · RaceFans

Pierre Gasly said it’s best not to dwell on the narrow margin by which AlphaTauri lost eighth place to Haas in the constructors championship Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free AlphaTauri had their strongest ever season in Formula 1 last year, taking sixth in the standings with 142 points. But they fell down the order when new technical regulations came in for 2022 and ended the year in ninth place with just 35 points from 22 grands prix. The resurgent Haas, last in the 2021 championship, beat AlphaTauri to eighth place by two points. Gasly said the team could easily have made that difference up during the season. “If you look back over 22 races, you’ll find these two points easily,” said Gasly, who won a race with the team in 2020 and reached the podium again last year. “But I’ve learnt for our own mental health, in F1 it’s better not to look back at all the missing points. Otherwise you get into depression very fast. “It’s a thing for us, we could have … [Read more...] about Depressing to consider points lost says Gasly after AlphaTauri slump to ninth · RaceFans

Pierre Gasly’s breakthrough victory for AlphaTauri on Sunday was the surprise of the season so far. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free It came a year on from a painful mid-season departure from Red Bull. For some drivers, it could have been a career-ending blow. But Gasly’s team principal Franz Tost has seen first-hand how the driver has rebounded from that painful setback, raised his game, and put himself in a position to take advantage when a rare opportunity to beat the big teams appeared. “He came back to us last year before Spa,” Tost recalled in an exclusive interview for RaceFans. “He came here to the office I said to him – I was joking – ‘it looks like you were here yesterday’, because we were very familiar with him. He knew the engineers, knew his mechanics.” Tost’s first step was to get Gasly comfortable again at Toro Rosso – now AlphaTauri – the team he left before his unsuccessful stint at Red Bull. “I just told him to completely reset, … [Read more...] about Exclusive: Tost on how Gasly bounced back to become a race-winner at AlphaTauri · RaceFans

Pierre Gasly has given an honest assessment of what was a disappointing final season for him with AlphaTauri before joining Alpine. The Frenchman’s move to a works team representing his home country, confirmed in early October, was understandable in any case, but even more so after how things had turned out for AlphaTauri in 2022. The previous year, Gasly had been a regular on the front three rows of the grid with some excellent qualifying performances, he enjoyed a podium finish when third in Azerbaijan and scored a career-high 110 points across the campaign. But this time around, he contributed a lowly 23 – his poorest return in any of his five full F1 seasons – as the Italy-based team slipped from sixth to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship. For much of the campaign, Gasly gave the impression of being a driver desperately in need of a fresh start – which Alpine were able to offer for 2023 due to Fernando Alonso’s departure, Red Bull willing to release him from his … [Read more...] about Pierre Gasly ‘won’t lie’, admits he found 2022 with AlphaTauri less ‘enjoyable’

New Alpine signing Pierre Gasly has picked out the strengths he felt in his new car after the Abu Dhabi test, having swapped over from AlphaTauri. Gasly had his chance to make his debut appearance with Alpine in Abu Dhabi, having swapped to the Enstone-based squad after spending the entirety of his F1 career so far racing under the Red Bull umbrella with Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri and a brief stint with Red Bull Racing. Signed to replace the departing Fernando Alonso at Alpine, Gasly took part in the post-season test in Abu Dhabi with Alpine, although had to wear plain grey overalls and a neutral helmet design due to his contract with Red Bull still being in place. Moving from the team that finished ninth in the 2022 Constructors’ Championship to the team that finished fourth, the step up in equipment was quickly apparent to Gasly as he finished the test day in fourth place behind the three pace-setting Ferrari drivers. Given that it was a day of Pirelli tyre testing for the 2023 … [Read more...] about Pierre Gasly pinpoints Alpine strengths after AlphaTauri swap

The FIA have blamed the “idiosyncrasies of the specific circuit and scenario” after Yuki Tsunoda was not permitted to unlap himself during the final Safety Car period at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. A lap down on race leader George Russell, Tsunoda, as well as the two Williams cars of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi, were given a lifeline when the Safety Car was deployed as Lando Norris retired with a power unit failure. But while the Williams team-mates’ numbers were displayed in Race Control’s ‘cars may now unlap themselves’ message, Tsunoda’s was not. “I got told I had to stay in the line, so I just stayed,” said the AlphaTauri driver, who was stuck mid-queue. “I thought I could overtake [to unlap], but they said no so I just stayed.” The FIA insist there was nothing wrong with their system, saying the “unusual situation arose as a result of the idiosyncrasies of the specific circuit and scenario.” Although the Japanese driver initially registered on the timing system as a … [Read more...] about FIA explain why Yuki Tsunoda could not join unlapping pack at Interlagos

Pierre Gasly maintains he has no regrets as he prepares for his final race as driver part of the Red Bull family. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be the last time, for the foreseeable future, that Gasly races with the charging bull of Red Bull on his helmet as he is due to move to Alpine for the 2023 season. It brings an end a nine-year association with Gasly joining as a junior driver before being given the seat at Toro Rosso and then Red Bull. He would return to AlphaTauri in 2019 and bring his race tally for the team up to 95, the most one driver has taken part in for Red Bull’s sister team. While his time in the top seat at Red Bull threatened to derail his whole F1 career, Gasly has maintained he has no regrets about his stint alongside Max Verstappen and said that “whatever was meant to happen, happened.” “Not at all,” he replied when asked by media including PlanetF1 if his move felt bittersweet. “This was my career and my story was Red Bull. “I really believe that … [Read more...] about Pierre Gasly reflects on Red Bull years and ageing like ‘good red wine’